Article marketing is a great way to promote a website, gain authority, and become known as an expert in one’s field. Not too long ago, article marketing was considered a low-quality strategy and for good reason: SEO companies churned out thousands of articles onto cheap article sites to get tons of worthless links. That changed back in 2011 when Google introduced its Panda algorithm, which was designed to reward high-quality websites.
Today, article marketing can be an effective part of your overall marketing strategy and offers brands the potential to reach a lot of new customers.
How to Become an Article Marketing Expert
Establishing oneself as an expert can be one of the surest ways to introduce potential customers or clients to a brand. Articles are not necessarily more difficult to write than blog posts, but they are more in-depth and require a unique voice. Remember, the goal is to become known as an expert. That means your articles must include both educational information and a point of view.
Here are five simple tips on how to write SEO articles that help establish a writer as an expert in her or his industry.
- If you follow only one of the tips here, make it this one: Write about what people care about. You can be well-versed in the topic at hand and know all the right statistics to quote, but it doesn’t matter in the least if no one cares to read it. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you’re writing to Google’s algorithm. Don’t forget that you need actual people to click on and read what you write. Everything you write should, above all else, be of value to the audience. To position yourself as a leader, make sure it’s knowledge they can’t find anywhere else.
- None of that means you don’t want Google to take notice of your content as well. Enter keyword research. Use it to find the keywords and phrases people are searching for. Create a spreadsheet and track how often you use those words and phrases in your content.
- People use search engines to look for certain phrases because they want to solve a problem. Give them what they’re looking for! Put your keywords to work in all the right places: the title, in one or more of the headers, in photo captions, and in the summary. Don’t forget to use keyword variations and make sure all keywords fit naturally into the writing.
- Word count does not predict how good an article is, but long-form content, on average, earns more engagement, higher SEO rankings, and more shares than short-form content. If you want the articles you write to deliver traffic and establish authority, think in terms of at least 800 words. Some experts suggest 1,000 or more. as research has shown Google tends to favor in-depth content of at least 2,000 words. Why? Because the more information you give your readers, the more Google rewards you for being useful.
- No article marketing strategy is complete without analytics. Use Google Analytics to regularly monitor and analyze your content. In addition to keyword density, check time on site, bounce rates, and pages per session, making corrections and adjustments where necessary. Note which articles are attracting the most traffic and/or conversions and apply the tactics used for them to your next campaign.
The Bottom Line
Learning how to write authentic and useful articles will get you one step closer to being the article marketing expert you hope to be. Make sure your articles are credible by using references to solid, well-respected sources. This helps convince other writers to link to you as a knowledgeable source. With those links comes referral traffic, with organic search traffic close behind. You’ll soon build more authority, which is the forerunner to a loyal readership, more leads and conversions.
